MARRIED LIFE
by SANDEFUR
Summary: A slice of life story, Girardi style.


MARRIED LIFE

by

SANDEFUR

Disclaimer: This is fanfiction just for fun. I have no claims.

6-10-07/Sunday afternoon.

"Grace, it's too hot up here. Do we have to do this now?" Luke whines.

Grace sighs. "We have to dig out my winter clothes before we leave for Boston in August. Trust me, you don't want to be in this attic in August."

"But couldn't we get your winter things when we come home on holiday?"

"That wouldn't be until Thanksgiving, and I'll need those things before then. Besides, my Mom stored a lot of my old baby clothes up here, and Annie will be needing them soon the way she is growing."

Reminded of her daughter, Grace goes to the small dormer window and looks out on the backyard of her former home. She watches as her parents play with their adorable granddaughter…

"Hey look, Annie is getting my Dad to play the 'pointing game' with her."

Luke smiles broadly and goes to the window to watch too. "Oh, this will be fun. That is, if Rabbi Polonsky isn't aware of how the game works."

"I don't think so. I don't remember Dad being alone with her long enough to get the game started."

"Because you almost never let her out of your sight?"

"Okay, okay, I've had this conversation with Mama Girardi and with Joan. I know I'm being overprotective with Annie, but that's a mother's right. Besides, I'm trying to ease off. I am letting my parents babysit while we're up here."

With you checking on them every five minutes, Luke thinks but wisely does not say.

"Look, there they go with the game."

In the backyard, Annie has been desperately pointing at the birdbath a short way down the yard. She wiggles and squirms while making frustrated yearning noises. She then looks back to her grandfather to see if he has noticed. Rabbi Polonsky picks Annie up and points to the birdbath too. They are too far away for Luke and Grace to make out what is said, but they can see Annie's intense excitement now that she has Grandpa's attention. They walk toward the birdbath, and once there, Grandpa Polonsky shows it to his excited granddaughter. Only, she no longer seems interested in the item. She gives Grandpa a quizzical look that seems to say, 'Why are you showing me this'? Polonsky seems confused by this development, and is even more surprised when Annie squeals with laughter.

Upstairs, the young Girardi couple chuckle at Annie having 'got' the Rabbi with her favorite joke.

Luke comments, "Now watch, Annie will start pointing at something else."

Sure enough, Annie begins to squirm with desperate excitement as she begins pointing at the flower bed. Rabbi Polonsky looks in that direction and makes a natural assumption…

Luke adds, "See how the flowerbed is on a straight line with the birdbath, so you dad will think that's what she wanted to see all the time?"

As Annie and Grandpa begin to move toward the flowerbed, Grace laughs. "Poor Dad, Annie will have him carrying her all over that backyard before she is done. And, she'll get a big laugh every time, at least until Dad catches on. I still think your sister taught Annie this crazy game."

"Joan swears she didn't. She says Annie came up with it all on her own."

"How can a baby think up a game?"

"This might be an early indicator that Annie is a genius."

"Oh."

"Does that bother you?"

"No…I guess not. I mean, it's what we've all been thinking even before Annie was born."

Luke nods. "Genetics favored this outcome. Your I.Q. is substantially high…"

"And you're a certified genius, so naturally we all expect Annie will be very smart. But…I wonder if genius will be the result? Isn't it possible Annie will be closer to the normal range?"

"You sound like you don't want Annie to be a genius."

"Don't get me wrong. I want Annie to be smart, but I worry if she ends up a genius, maybe even smarter than you, she won't have a happy life."

"Really? I think my life has turned out quite happy."

Grace smiles, and they share a brief kiss. "And I love you too, but it we hadn't met, how happy would you have been? I remember what you were like before we started dating. You were a social outcast, a sub-defective like me, who only hung out with other science nerds because you couldn't make any regular friends. So, you ended up with Friedman as a best friend, and that bitch as your first girlfriend."

Luke doesn't try to correct Grace's description of Glynis. After last year when the poor, crazy girl had shot Grace and framed Luke for the crime, Luke began to think of Glynis in the same terms.

"I get your point, but that was high school. Once you move beyond that difficult period of time, life gets better for the intellectually gifted. Trust me, in college, I'm considered quite a catch—that is, if I weren't already very happily married to the most wonderful…"

"Can it. I trust you. I know you haven't been tempted by all of those horny girl geeks, despite the long separation we had."

Luke breathes a sigh of relief while Grace feels a pang of regret. The secret of her post-coma ability to astral travel, given by God, has remained a secret she has only shared with her ex-shrink, Dr. John Hunter. She knows of Luke's faithfulness first hand as she has seen, in her ghostlike astral state, Luke's rejection of some amazingly hot co-eds. His fidelity endears him to her even more, while making her nervous for the future. She has to admit, her geeky husband is maturing into an actual hunk, and she wonders how long any man can resist so much temptation. This is one of the reasons Grace is returning with Luke to M.I.T. in the fall—to carefully guard what is hers.

"Hey look, Annie has fooled your dad again."

Grace looks back out the window and sees Annie and her Dad at the flowerbed. Once again Annie is laughing her head off at having fooled someone with her game. And again, she tries one more time. Now she is pointing at a little red wagon further down the yard, but still on a straight line with the birdbath and the flowerbed. Obediently, Rabbi Polonsky begins the trudge toward the wagon, a look of suspicion appearing on his face. Sarah Polonsky, catching on to the joke, is recording the event with her cell phone.

"This won't go on much longer. I think Dad is catching on."

"Eventually, everyone does. I think Joan is the only one who keeps playing the game with Annie, and that's only because she is so in love with our daughter. Annie seems to be…a stress reducer for Joan."

"Yeah, one that she needs. Since you've been back from college, have you noticed how tense Joan has become?"

"You can't miss it. I know she has been working really hard at school, trying to get in enough credits to graduate in three years instead of four, and I've certainly seen lots of students under that type of stress. But Joan…seems to be at the breaking point."

"Yeah, I know." Grace responds, again feeling guilt. During returns from her astral travels, Grace has spotted Joan on some of her early morning jogs—talking to someone who wasn't there! "Every year around this time…it's like her warranty expires.

"Which is why I'm glad Kevin has volunteered to finance a long, restful summer vacation for Joan. She desperately needs a chance to relax and recharge."

"She leaves for Los Angeles this coming Saturday?"

"First class. Kevin is sparing no expense to give Joan a great vacation. I think Mom has been talking to him about Joan, which is why she is leaving even before next Sunday."

"Next Sunday?"

"Father's day."

"Oh right, we're taking your dad to Sunday brunch, and joining my Dad for dinner."

"Uh, speaking of that brunch, I was wondering if I could ask a favor? Could you please, just this once, not breast feed Annie in public?"

Grace glares at Luke. "A woman has the right…"

"Yes, yes I've heard your La Leche lecture a thousand times. I'm not disputing that right. It's just that Dad is old fashioned, and it really makes him uncomfortable…and me too, to be perfectly honest."

"Really? You've never said anything before."

"I've been away most of the time this has been going on, so it has never been a big issue—until now. I see how all of those slack-jawed cretins stare at you and your breast, and it makes me mad. To them, this isn't a natural, beautiful moment between mother and child. They see it as a free peep show, and that makes me angry—at them, I mean."

"So I have to deny myself this God-given right because of a bunch of knuckle-draggers?"

"No, not deny, just modify this one time to make my Dad's special day a little better. Besides, I've never seen you practice this 'right' around your dad."

Grace blushes a little, realizing that Luke is right. What a hypocrite she has been. Putting poor Papa Girardi through this while never doing the same around her own father—the thought of which is creeping her out even now…

"Okay, this one time, I'll keep covered up. But I am not giving up my right to publicly breast feed. Understood?"

"Agreed. Thank you Grace. I guess we should get back to work. Are you sure you don't remember which box has your winter clothes?"

"Nah, it's been a couple of years since I've been up here, and Mom rearranged everything since then. And who knows where those baby clothes might be? We may have to search through all of these boxes and trunks."

Luke sighs. "It's like looking for the Ark of the Covenant in that warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"That reminds me…Dad wants me to start going back to Temple, and to bring Annie with me. How do you feel about that?"

"Your dad and I worked that out before Annie was born. We agreed Annie would be exposed to both faiths, and the choice, without pressure, would be up to her."

"I really want Annie to connect with her Jewish roots. I want her to know that it's more than a choice between which building you stand in on a Saturday or a Sunday. Luke…this is important to me."

"Since when? You've never been a shining example of Jewish religiosity."

Grace hesitates. How can she explain? Since Annie has been born, and she prayed that God would give her time without 'assignments', she has been astral travelling most nights while her body sleeps. She did the usual things, checking on family and her husband—travelling to popular tourist attractions all over the world. Once, she even stood in the middle of an erupting volcano. But it was when she decided to travel to Israel that things changed for Grace. Something about being in the promised land, even in an astral form, connected Grace to a heritage she had never given a lot of serious thought to. But now she has explored that land of her ancestors, visited the holy places and prayed at the wailing wall. For the first time in her life, being Jewish has become Grace's identity.

"Being Jewish isn't just a matter of religion. It's about heritage, traditions and being connected to something so vast, it makes you feel both small and important at the same time. Annie has to experience that. Do you understand?"

Luke pauses, contemplating an answer. "Yes Grace, I get that. I should have told you this earlier, but while I was in Boston, I began a catechism class. I planned to be confirmed in the church."

"You?"

Luke nods. "I guess it started when you were in the coma. I began praying for you every day, and I realized I found great comfort in that. Then I started attending Sunday mass with Mom, and I felt a connection to...something greater. I realized that even though both of my parents had been away from the church most of their adult lives, our family's values were very much shaped by our Catholic heritage."

"Are you comparing that to five thousand years of Judaism?"

"Grace, I've traced my family's Italian roots back to the 15th century, and it's not an unreasonable assumption that some branch of my family has been both Italian and Catholic since the days of the Roman empire. That is also a long and proud heritage that I want Annie to share."

Grace ponders this position. She has been so wrapped up in her own rediscovery of her own heritage, she never considered Luke's side of the equation. "Then...I guess we should stick with the original agreement. Annie gets a double dose of faith and heritage, and how she deals with that will be up to her."

Both husband and wife breathe a sigh of relief, and then grin in the mutual realization that they have avoided a potential land mine in their marriage. They continue searching through the seemingly endless boxes.

Luke resumes the conversation. "Friedman called."

"How is brillo head?"

"Glad to be back from Yale, and glad to be reunited with Dillon."

"Dillon Samuels? Is that still going on?"

"Against all odds, they're making the long distance relationship thing work."

"'Against all odd?' Is that how you see us?"

"Of course not. We're married with a child. Friedman and Dillon are only dating. Speaking of which, Friedman suggested a double date this Friday."

"Are you kidding? Friedman I can barely stand, but Dillon? No way."

"What have you got against her?"

"It's more a matter of loyalty to your sister. After Joan broke up with Dylan...Hunter, Dillon...Samuels (damn, I hate that their names sound alike), she slept with Joan's ex. And now, after Joan broke up with Friedman (and I'm glad the coma spared me watching that), Dillon hooked up with Friedman too."

"I talked this over with Joan because of my friendship with Friedman, and she's fine with it. They all get along okay. Joan and Friedman are still friends, Dillon is still grateful to Joan for saving her life, and we all realize Dillon is a bit of a skank."

Grace snorts with laughter.

Luke adds, "Do not repeat that to Friedman. So, what do you say, Grace? Friday night?"

"Can we bring Annie?"

"On a date? Grace, remember you're trying to let go of the overprotectiveness. And, we haven't been out on a date since before we were married. Joan could babysit."

"No. Not your sister."

"Are the two of you having problems?"

"No, I love Joan. It's just that she's way too stressed right now. Maybe after her vacation..."

"Okay, what about Mom?"

"She's busy with the little alien."

"Excuse me?"

Grace blushes. "Sorry. This is also something not to be repeated, but sometimes Joan calls Eleanor that because her initials are, E. T."

"That's...weird, even for Joan. I noticed she was a little stand-offish with the new baby, especially in comparison to her relationship with Annie. Okay, I guess that lets out any date night."

Grace faintly hears Annie's laugh and looks outside. Her Dad has caught on to the pointing game, but he continues to indulge his granddaughter.

"What...what if my parents babysit?"

"You'd be comfortable with that?"

"'Comfortable' might be a stretch, but I'm willing to try. Fair warning, I'll be calling to check on Annie at least every half hour."

"Which means every 15 minutes. Okay, I'll let Friedman know we're on for Friday night."

Grace nods, and they resume their search. A few minutes later, Grace calls out...

"Found the baby clothes, and they all seem to be in good shape."

Luke looks over and comments, "Aren't those all too big?"

"The way Annie is growing, she'll be bursting out of this stuff before New Year's."

Grace begins sorting through the baby items while Luke resumes the never ending search for the winter clothes. Eventually Luke calls out...

"Eureka, success at last. No wonder it took so long. You said your winter stuff was in a box, not this old trunk."

Grace, distracted by her sorting, responds, "Mom must have reorganized up here at some time."

"Hmm, there's more here than clothes. Some of your old CD's...your beanie babies..."

"Save those for Annie."

Luke opens a large cardboard tube. "Some of your old posters. Che Guevera...and aw, your Dawson's Creek posters."

Grace looks up, suddenly alarned. "Dude, put those away!"

"Why? I already know about your Dawson's Creek fetish."

"Some of that stuff is private."

"Private? Grace, we're married. We have no secrets."

Grace is about to protest again when Luke comes to the last item in the stack of posters... "Oh my God."

"Luke, it's not what you think."

"I think it's a sketch of you topless, signed with the initials, A. R. You posed for Adam like this?"

"Now don't go getting jealous. I swear nothing ever happened between Adam and me."

"I believe you. You always said that growing up, Adam was the closest thing you had to a brother. Still, I am surprised you would ever pose like this. Why did you?"

"It's a long story. It was Adam's 14th birthday, and the first one after his mother died. He was really down..." (Footnote)

"So you posed topless to cheer him up? Yeah, I can see how this would brighten the day of any 14 year old boy."

Luke pauses to appreciate the sketch in his hands. Even at 14, you could see the early and substantial talent of Adam Rove. The drawing is beautiful, showing a nervous but excited Grace in a moment of her budding sensuality.

Grace asks, "What are you planning to do with that?"

"Have it framed."

"Is that a joke?"

"Of course not. Grace, this is a beautiful work of art, and it needs to be better preserved than being rolled up with a bunch of old posters. I assume you had it hid to keep your parents from seeing this?"

"Yeah, I didn't want them to get the wrong idea about Adam and me, but that was so long ago, I kinda forgot it was up here."

"We can hang it on the wall of our flat when we get to Boston."

"Now I know you're joking."

"On the contrary, art this beautiful needs to be seen."

"I thought you didn't want people looking at my breasts?"

"The real thing in person, not something like this. You do realize, if Adam becomes the great artist that we expect him to be, this early work of his may one day be worth a small fortune."

"Really?"

"We may be looking at Annie's future college fund."

"Wow. I had no idea. But Luke, my darling husband, there's no way in hell we are hanging this up in our home."

Luke asks with a smile, "Not even in the bedroom?"

"Well..."

"Pose for me, Grace."

"What, like that? Dude, my parents are right downstairs."

"They're in the backyard absorbed in their granddaughter. Pose for me."

Grace smiles, and a little nervously removes her shirt and bra. She does her best to duplicate the pose in the drawing. Luke draws nearer, and gently caresses his wife. Grace shudders with pleasure.

"If my Mom catches us again..."

"We can be quick."

"Okay...but not too quick."

Laughing with joy, they passionately kiss.

THE END.

Please review. (Footnote: The full story of Grace's sketch can be found in my story, MOUNT NASHMAN.)


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